The First Hundred Years: Clearwater Yacht Club, 1911-2011

the Robert Word Memorial Award for Racing Participation . George Hardy and his wife Hank (another founding member of the Gulls) have been members since the early 1970s. George was a member of the CYC Board of Trustees for seventeen years. Past Commodore Vic Spoto and his wife Mary Lou joined in 1984 and were very actively involved in all aspects of club life. Past Commodore Bill Welbon joined in 1963 and remained actively engaged on the Historical Committee and in the club’s historic Snipe Midwinters Regatta until he “crossed the bar” in 2008. As a daughter of Taver Bayly, Ann Bayly Cornett and her sisters (Phyllis Bayly Jones and Pat Bayly Alexander) grew up at CYC. Ann was an avid supporter of the club’s regatta program (especially the historic Snipe Midwinters) and an invaluable member of both the Gulls and the Historical Committee until she too “crossed the bar” in 2009. Collectively, these committee members have a total of over four hundred years of experience with CYC. They have made tremendous contributions to the club and have saved its life more than once. Most of all, these folks have told some fantastic tales. It is their collective memories and memorabilia that form the heart and soul of this book.

Past Commodore Vic and Mary Lou Spoto at the Commodores’ Ball, 2008. CYC Archives.

Hank and George Hardy receiving the CYC Meritorious Service Award (2008). CYC Archives.

Past Commodore Bill Welbon firing the cannon to signal the start of the Snipe Midwinters Grapefruit Party in 2005. Photo by Amanda Fleming.

Ann Bayly Cornett (left) and Marie Shepard McMahon serving coffee at a Snipe Midwinters Regatta in 1987. Bow Chasers’ Archives.

Tomorrow

During his term as commodore in 2007–2008, Gene Fleming established a Long Term Planning Committee chaired by John Hanson. The committee’s charge was to conduct a careful evaluation of the current culture of CYC and to establish a process of planning for the future in a way that builds on the strengths of this culture. As part of this process, students enrolled in my Senior Seminar in Sociology class at the University of South Florida helped collect data for an in-depth study of the club (Green, 2008). In the pages that follow you will hear about CYC’s current culture as well as its past. You’ll learn this club was and is filled with variety. You will hear about whimsical rockin’ dock

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